30 Minutes
by doesitsaycolonel
Summary: Time out - after Paradise Lost but no spoilers


DISCLAIMER: Stargate does not belong to me or ever will!!  
  
First time posting a story so I would appreciate any feedback. I know some of the dialogue may be very anglophile so I apologise in advance.  
  
30 MINUTES  
  
"That's a chicken on a bicycle." Get out 'a here.. Where's that?" The meadow grass rustled, partly in the breeze that had started up in the afternoon warmth, and partly because of a man with a relaxed attitude to a strange planet decided to change his position. An arm pointed heavenward: " No, oh yeah, kinda, if you think chickens look like .. Not chickens." O'Neill and Carter were flat on their backs. After achieving similar vantage points, they still disagreed over the fine art of cloud watching. Both had their sunglasses on, O'Neill further shading his eyes with his left arm, while he waved vaguely at a cloud and chewed on a piece of grass surveilling the azure sky.  
  
The planet was beautiful, even to the well travelled: the area immediately around the gate was covered in deciduous woodland, and in this, their second visit, SG1 was checking for signs of habitation. Jonas was convinced that the rolling green and blue grey meadows were characteristic of cultivation but O'Neill just thought they looked nice. T'ealc and Jonas Quinn had volunteered to take the boring job (in O'Neill's opinion) of checking for naquada deposits. Carter and the Colonel were collecting grass samples to compare to similar cultivated types from Earth. There was a good chance that they may never again come back to this planet but it was worthwhile keeping the details on record for possibilities of resettlement if needed.  
  
" How long have we got before we have to meet up?" O'Neill glanced at, and then tapped his watch for no reason. " Give or take 30 minutes. Long enough to beat you" " I think you'll find that I am two ahead of you at the moment" They had decided upon a theme for their scientific experiment, but any logic that existed had gone with the first suggestion from Carter. " I don't think that dog doing that uh..Thing you mentioned should count " " Now come on Sir, that's not what you said at the time. In fact you got close to giving me a field promotion." Carter smirked to herself: this did not happen very often, an opportunity to deliver a smart- ass comment back at her commanding officer. " Get it- field.. I just made a joke!" " Yes, very funny Carter, I do the jokes."  
  
Silence fell again.  
  
O'Neill and Carter had bagged their samples within an hour, taking their time wandering along the edge of the seemingly endless field. If any enemy had decided to jump them there would have been little difficulty overcoming the two for once relaxed officers. It had been a tough few months for both of them and this was the closest that they were going to get to a vacation for a while. There were no birds, just an endless supply of exotic insects and for a change very few of the biting variety so the air was strangely silent but for the breeze that had started up from the east.  
  
Carter had sighed when she realised that they were about done, and was about to suggest to the Colonel that they call Jonas and T'ealc to see if they had finished when he had suddenly disappeared. Sam span around looking for him " Sir, where are you?"  
  
" Look down Major." Taking a few steps forward she saw O'Neill taking up position in the grass. " What are you doing?" " What does it look like Carter? Taking time out". He made himself comfortable, and rolled around a little to create a flattened area made for two. After a smile, and a quick look around as if to check that no one was looking, Carter let down her pack and cautiously joined him in the grass. " OK, what are we doing now?" That was how it began, and twenty minutes later came the chicken on a bicycle.  
  
Their heads were now at the same end and Carter had started to feel a bit uncomfortable as if she was at a party and had to make small talk. When anyone asked her what she did for a living, whatever fabrication she revealed was always a conversation stopper. At least the blank looks she sometimes got from her C.O. were not polite and glassy eyed, they were just blank not just because he did not understand, but was also glad that she did.  
  
She looked over at him as he continued to keep his attention on the rolling clouds. He was tracing an outline of an imagined shape, and mouthing something to himself. She smiled and thought she could hear the wheels turning.  
  
" You really are trying too hard." " What?" He was startled out of his musings, looked over at her and smiled back. " That's the kind of thing I usually have to say to you. Hey - you're stopping me from winning". As she continued to grin at him, he frowned in mock annoyance. " Now you're just trying to put me off."  
  
Distracted with the way her thoughts were headed, she suddenly looked up and said the first thing that came into her head. " Giraffe!" That was enough to make O'Neill sigh and sit up. She was going to win. His eye line was just below the level of the grass. In amongst the stems were golden flowers the size of daisies. He held one gently between his thumb and forefinger without breaking it. " I hadn't noticed these before. They remind me of that place I landed with Maybourne". He thought for a moment - despite the circumstances for a while he had felt oddly at peace there. He could see what the draw was for Harry. Jack turned his thoughts back to the present.  
  
" Snacks. I brought snacks." O'Neill started to rummage in his pockets and found a couple of energy bars and some chocolate. " Cool. Carter, want the rabbit food?" Sam screwed her nose up but reached up to take one of the bars from him. "Rank hath its privileges" she quoted. "No, rank has nothing to do with it for, ( checked his watch again) 22 and a half minutes. I just can't stand nuts." " That explains a lot", Carter mumbled around her chewing. " That explains a lot , Sir" O'Neill corrected. He lay back down propping his head up with one arm and eating the other bar anyway.  
  
" So, when you were away that time, how did you know you were going to make it back?"  
  
Carter felt that it was so rare that she had chances like this that she would make the most of it.  
  
" Oh, what with Harry? Yeah, sure either that or we'd shoot each other. Bad hygiene problem y'know. Never flossed" " No seriously, did you think about anything else, the SGC, home?" She really did not want to state the obvious and cross a line that would spoil the mood.  
  
" Yeah, I knew you would get me back"  
  
"See, I get that." He looked at her and raised an eyebrow, surprised that she would agree with something that he felt instinctively. " That's an emotional reaction: stop me if I'm wrong," she paused and gave him a chance for a comment, then continued," the logical side of your conscious brain," she looked sidelong at him again, and he frowned, "What?.." "Your logic would say, how could we possibly know where you were?" " You know Carter, it could be another planet, Iraq, Siberia, - wouldn't matter - it's whatever gets you through. It applies to the lost and the, err lostee". " Yes. Whatever. I know." Sam thoughts trailed to previous missions, lost moments, despair, stupidity all the stuff that makes you mad in the small hours. She grabbed a piece of grass, and pulled it out of its sheath, following Jack's lead, she started to chew on it. It helped. She thought, I am so unlike a bovine.  
  
Time passed.  
  
How much..  
  
" Two minutes after you last asked Carter" " Right"  
  
Twenty minutes she thought. For once I am going out on a limb, devil may care, wild child. Sam sat up and took her shirt off, rolled it up and used it as a cushion. Of course she had her vest on underneath, but still crossed her arms first upon laying down. After assuring herself that she was not being watched, she uncrossed them and relaxed, taking in the sun.  
  
Behind his shades, O'Neill looked at his colleague. Way to go Carter, loosen up. Then he looked again. Then he said to himself, stop enough desist. Do that again airman, and she'll have you on charges of..Of looking again with intent. Then, crap, what's the worst that can happen.  
  
Jack took his glasses off with a flourish, propped up on his elbow, smiled his smile, and could not think of one charming or witty thing to say, and lay back down again. O'Neill's mind started to wander as he realised that he was losing it. Gone the way of the do-do, dinosaur, that big bird. Big bird, long legs. Carter's got long legs, right up to her.  
  
" Hey, have you still got that chocolate?" "What?" "Choc. O. Late." " Oh that, sure. Torture Carter. The ancient, little invoked torture known as 'Withholding the Snacks'."  
  
With a flourish O'Neill revealed the two squares that had been in his pocket. Mercifully still wrapped in paper, though now a bit squishy, he held them aloft. The situation then got serious.  
  
If anyone had happened upon this patch of grass they would have seen it shaking violently. If anyone had been close enough to hear they would have heard some cursing and giggling. If anyone had been able to read minds.. Inappropriate thoughts.  
  
"O'NEILL!!"  
  
Jack sat bolt upright. His glasses hanging off one ear, hair awry, he did a " rabbit caught in the headlights." " What, nothing.. Who said?" T'ealc and Jonas stood a few yards away. Jonas was laughing silently, trying to cover it up without success. This made Jack irritated on a very basic level. " Do you HAVE to creep up on people like that!" T'ealc's eyebrow raised. " AND YOU can SHUT UP!" O'Neill looked back and murmured something as Carter suddenly sat up still licking her fingers. She looked embarrassed. " Carter" Jack murmured, and indicated generally towards his chest. Briefly confused, she looked at him, and then looked down at herself. The fight for the chocolate had got ugly. Her vest, though stretchy had gone beyond design tolerances and had snapped at the shoulder revealing her bra top, on this occasion, thankfully, not lacy. She hunched back down, and searched for her shirt, and put it on. " Sir, you should have said something, .. 20 minutes you said" " Hey, what can I say?" he tapped his watch yet again. "It's broken". They gathered their kit, and arose.  
  
"All is in order I presume" T'ealc was doing the equivalent of a guffaw. He smiled. Jonas just grinned. "Absolutely T. Ship shape, the 'i's' dotted the 't's' crossed", he made an apologetic shrug at T'ealc for that one, "Grain has been gathered. There was a slight disagreement over rations".  
  
O'Neill took point after adjusting his glasses and hat, and T'ealc followed behind with a nod of his head and a smile. Jonas gathered his face together as a miffed Carter took up the rear. She pushed him to make herself feel better. "Laugh it up". Jonas looked offended then sniggered again. " Your face, .picture!" he managed to force out between giggles.  
  
There were a few murmured barbed and otherwise work related comments heading back towards the Stargate. T'ealc dialled them home and he and Jonas headed through first. Jack paused and put his hand on Carter's arm to halt her going through next. " Major," "Sir, I.." "Forget it: assaulting a superior officer may be forgiven on this occasion - undue stress and all." Sam gave a wry smile, happy that the incident would be forgotten, but O'Neill continued. " Red would be better for you Carter, it matches your.." he waved his hands as if searching for the right words, then backed through the event horizon with a final grin. As she followed him though Sam said to herself, " Never work with smart ass superiors, and wormholes. They've always got to have the last.." And the wormhole closed behind her. 


End file.
